On this day in 2001, the iconic Afroman hit “Because I Got High” went number one in the UK. The record proved to be quite the international hit overseas, peaking at 1 in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and Scotland. To think it was just a comedy rap song initially! “Because I Got High” has become (arguably) the quintessential song about weed.
It’s ironic because the song actually jokes about how cannabis has actively ruined his life. As much as stoners hazily hum the song, Afroman actually wrote about one day when he wanted to be ambitious. However, when a friend came over with weed, one puff smoked his motivation away.
As the song continues, everything gets progressively worse. It starts with a room he couldn’t muster up the desire to clean. He skips class and ends up having to take it next semester. He had a good job, and then he ended up selling dope and losing his whole paycheck after not paying his child support. Afroman eventually loses everything because he numbed his brain to death. If the song wasn’t so breezy and light, it might as well have been a part of the DARE program.
Afroman Hits Number One on This Day 24 Years Ago
Eventually, the record transitions from grave warning to a deflated shrug. It makes sense that the song was only written in a few minutes because the LA-bred artist ends with a plain “f**k it.” This was his disposition towards the music industry, too, at the time of writing. But once the record took off on Napster, everything changed drastically.
“It started with people you know, just selling it to a whole bunch of people, and then the music started to sell itself,” Afroman told CNN in 2001. “Next thing you know, like, some other little kid helped me out and put it out on Napster, and they gave meet publicity that I couldn’t pay for. I couldn’t say that the Super Bowl was sponsored by Afroman. But you could go to Napster and find out if they like me or what it was about. And next thing you know, I guess Universal Records had Napster, too.”
His follow-up record, “Crazy Rap”, did well overseas as well. But in the end, it didn’t fully translate the way “Because I Got High” did. Consequently, he’s been known as a one-hit wonder ever since. Nowadays, he still makes music, and he even re-interpreted his big hit into a promotion for weed legalization. All because he got high one day and wrote a song about it.
The post On This Day in 2001, Afroman Went No. 1 With ‘Because I Got High’ appeared first on VICE.
